NORMATIVE VALUES FOR ISOMETRIC MUSCLE FORCE MEASUREMENTS OBTAINED WITH HAND-HELD DYNAMOMETERS

Background and Purpose. The extent of a patient's impairment can be es tablished by comparing measurements of that patient's performance with normative values obtained from apparently unimpaired individuals. Onl y a few studies have described normative values for muscle strength me asured by hand-held dynamometry. The purpose of this study of older ad ults, therefore, was to obtain normative values of maximum voluntary i sometric force using hand-held dynamometers. Subjects. One hundred fif ty-six asymptomatic adults (77 men, 70 women) participated in this stu dy. The subjects' mean age was 64.4 years (SD=8.3, range=50-79). The m ale subjects' mean age was 64.5 years (SD=8.4, range=50-79), and the f emale subjects' mean age was 64.3 years (SD=8.2, range=50-79). Methods . Gender, age, dominant side, height, weight, and activity level were recorded. Eight upper-extremity movements (shoulder flexion, extension , abduction, and medial and lateral rotation; elbow flexion and extens ion; and wrist extension) and five lower-extremity movements (hip flex ion and abduction, knee flexion and extension, and ankle dorsiflexion) were resisted by one of three experienced testers using a strain-gaug e hand-held dynamometer. Results. Gender, age, and weight were identif ied as independent predictors of force for all muscle actions on both the dominant and nondominant sides. These variables were used, therefo re, to create regression equations and normative values for the force of each muscle action. Conclusion and Discussion. The reference values provided may allow clinicians who follow the described testing protoc ol to estimate the severity of force-generating impairments in patient s aged 50 to 79 years.